XN000022-1995-05-19 — Page 3

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Transcript of Governor's media session

The following is a transcript of the Governor the Rt Hon Christopher Patten's media session after meeting representatives of parents of mentally handicapped children at Government House today (Friday);

Governor: We've had a good meeting this afternoon with some of the parents of mentally handicapped children and with representatives of some of the organisations which help to look after the interests of mentally handicapped children. I just want to underline what I've said before that these men and women are some the heroines and heroes of our community, providing loving care and commitment to bringing up their children in a compassionate atmosphere. They need the maximum support that we can give them in the community and that's why in 1992 we committed ourselves to meeting all the targets set out in the Green Paper on Rehabilitation for providing additional residential services, residential places and day care places for the mentally handicapped. Now, we're looking at two different problems here.

We are first of all looking at the provision of 3,930 places in residential homes for the mentally handicapped. Secondly, we are looking at the provision as we promised of 3,760 places in day care centres. That's the commitment that we've made. It's not an easy programme to deliver, first of all because of the difficulty of locating premises. Secondly because of the prejudice that unfortunately we've encountered in one or two neighbourhoods about the provision of facilities and thirdly, there are particular problems associated with some sites and some developments. So it's with disappointment that when we looked at the figures earlier this year, and it's a point that we discussed with these men and women, it was with disappointment that we discovered that we were falling about a year behind in the delivery of residential places. We've now looked at the position again.

We've discussed it with the Secretary for Works and the Director of Architectural Services and we've now managed to get the programme back on course so that we will be delivering by 1997 all the residential places that we've promised. In relation to day care, the problem is, or the issue is slightly different. With both day activities centres and sheltered employment, we've concluded that the need is slightly different from our previous assessments. So we've adjusted the figures but not at the expense of the mentally handicapped. What it means is that we will be providing more supported employment. We won't be just concentrating so much on sheltered workshops. And, we will be providing additional services for the mentally handicapped rather than spending all the money we've previously been intending on day activity centres.